Bates Numbering for PDFs

About the Bates Numbering for PDFs

Bates numbering gives every page of a set of documents its own number — usually a short prefix plus a zero-padded number such as ABC000001 — so that any page can be cited and found again. It is used to produce documents in litigation and discovery, to regulators and in audits. Add your PDFs in the order they should be numbered and the sequence carries on from file to file: if the first file ends at ABC000012, the next starts at ABC000013.

Choose the prefix, suffix, first number and number of digits, the position on the page (bottom right by default), the font and size, and an optional legend such as CONFIDENTIAL. A white box keeps the stamp readable over page content. The stamped files can be named by their Bates range, and a CSV index lists every file with its first and last number. The numbers are real text, so the PDFs stay searchable. Everything happens in your browser — confidential documents are never uploaded.

Common uses

• Producing documents to the other side in a lawsuit or arbitration.
• Preparing exhibits and court bundles where every page must be citable.
• Answering a regulator’s or auditor’s document request.
• Numbering the pages of an internal investigation file or a due-diligence data room.

How the numbers are made

Each number is the prefix, then the page’s number padded with zeros to the chosen width, then the suffix: prefix ABC, 6 digits and page 37 give ABC000037. Every page of every file is numbered — blank pages and covers too — in the order of the list, so no number is used twice and none is skipped. If the last number would be wider than the digits you chose, the tool asks for more digits instead of producing numbers of different widths.

Position, legend and legibility

The stamp goes in one of six positions, measured on the page as it is shown — on rotated pages too — at the distance you set from the edges. A legend (CONFIDENTIAL, ATTORNEYS’ EYES ONLY, a case name) can go in another corner or on the line next to the number. The white box behind the text keeps it readable over dark scans and photos. Helvetica, Times and Courier cover Western European letters; choose Noto Sans for ₹, Greek, Cyrillic or other accented letters.

File names and the index

Stamped files can be named by their Bates range (ABC000001-ABC000012.pdf), by their first number, or by their original name. The CSV index has one row per file — file name, saved name, pages, first and last Bates number — and opens in any spreadsheet; a cell that a spreadsheet would treat as a formula is written as text.

As an example of a published format, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Data Delivery Standards (Rev. 8/2021) ask for images to be “endorsed with sequential Bates numbers in the lower right corner of each image”, for Bates-endorsed PDF files to “be named by the Bates range”, and use FIRSTBATES and LASTBATES fields with numbers such as EDC0000001 (SEC Data Delivery Standards, PDF).

Check the rules that apply to you

There is no single Bates standard. Courts, agencies and the protocol agreed between the parties may fix the prefix, the number of digits, where the number goes, how files are named and whether a confidentiality legend is required. This tool stamps what you choose; it doesn’t know your case’s rules, so check them before producing documents.

Limitations

• Every page is numbered; to number only some pages or to add “Page 3 of 12” style numbers, use Add Page Numbers.
• On a page too small for the distance you chose (a receipt or a ticket, say) the stamp moves closer to the edge so it stays on the page; a page smaller than the stamp itself stops the job with the page named, so no page is left without its number.
• The numbers are added as text on the page: they can’t be changed in a reader, but someone with a PDF editor could remove them, as with any stamp.
• Encrypted or password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first with Unlock PDF.
• Stamping changes the file, so existing digital signatures will show as invalid.
• Text that needs shaping (Devanagari, Tamil, Arabic …) can’t be written by the PDF writer; prefixes and legends must use Latin, Greek or Cyrillic letters.
• The first use downloads the PDF engine once, so it needs an internet connection.

Privacy

Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.